Pelaez Report

MODULE 15
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND EQUALITY: HUMAN RIGHTS AND GENDER
 OBJECTIVES
 1. To broaden the student’s knowledge of development for people as equality.
 2. To enable the students to look deeper into strategies for development using
the rights-based approach.
 3. To emphasize the importance of gender in the development perspective.
Rights- based approach is an expansion of the earlier concept that puts emphasis
on the aspect of equality through the recognition of human rights as an approach
to development strategies. (UNDP 1998)
 The document (UNDP 1998) expanded the usual notion of rights- civil and
political such as voting, freedom of the press and religion, to include what it
called social, economic and cultural rights, ‘including the right to an
adequate standard of living, the right to education, the right to work and to
equal pay for equal work, and the rights of minorities to enjoy their own
culture, religion and language”.
 Of particular importance to this view is the protection and advancement

of the rights of disadvantages and minority groups, such as women,
children and indigenous people.
 The UNDP document further stressed that “human rights and sustainable
human development are interdependent and mutually reinforcing, thus it
aims the following:
1. Eliminating poverty and sustaining livelihoods
2. Promoting the advancement of women;
3. Protecting and regenerating the environment; and
4. Developing capacity for good governance.
 WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID) looks at the role of women in
development, focusing on their expanded role in the economy
 WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT (WAD) looked closely at the role of women in
different aspects of life, focusing on their different roles and needs which can
be harnessed for development.
 GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD) considered more apt because, while it
stresses the woman’s role in the society, it recognizes that those roles are
gendered, in other words learned.
 The concept of Gender and Development (GAD) posits that gendered relations
affect development, since relegating women in different societies into lower
roles keep them forever in a lower status that the males, whereas they can be
harnessed well in the contributions in the development process.
 The UN came up with the recognition that it is not only women’s contribution
in society that matters, but women are persons also with their own rights;
just as the concern for other sectors left out in the development process.
 The Philippines’ active policy of decentralization has helped so much in terms
of training women local officials to advocate for policies for women, by
providing awareness for gender concerns and responses for them through
gender politics.
 Republic Act 7192 entitled, "An Act Promoting the Integration of
Women as Full and Equal Partners of Men in Development and Nation
Building and for Other Purposes.
Removed discriminatory practices against women; it allowed
women to borrow money by themselves, enter formerly exclusive clubs
and the military academies and police forces.
 (Republic Act No. 9262). Anti-Violence Against Women and Children
Act of 2004.
Provides for the protection of women and children against violence
by defining and providing penalties including imprisonment and fines.
Amending the Family Code of the Philippines to remove traces of

inequality between spouses with respect to their ability: to provide
parental consent to marry, to administer their community property or
conjugal partnership, to exercise their parental authority over the
person and legal partnership over the property of common children.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Report 2021, the
Philippines has ranked 17th among 156 nations in closing gender inequality.
The Philippines, based on the report, has remained the top-performing country
in Asia after closing 78.4 percent of its overall gender gap.
The Philippines has been ranked among the top ten countries with the least
gender gap by the World Economic Forum. The other nine countries in the list
are all more developed economically than the Philippines; Sweden, Norway,
Finland, Iceland, Germany, New Zealand, Denmark, United Kingdom, and
Ireland.
However, Filipinas should not be complacent because, in reality, there is

inequality between male and female in the country.
We must also be aware that women’s actual political participation as elected
officials is still low in proportion to the women in the population.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, based on information provided by

national parliaments, the Philippines is classified as the 53rd country by
descending order of the percentage of women in the House of
Representatives. 316 seats in the House of Representatives with 75 women,
which represent 23.7. And in the Senate, the Philippines have 24 seats with 7
women, which constitute 29%.
The Philippines has had two female presidents. The first female president
Corazon Aquino struggled to address her country's economic problems and
restored democracy to the Philippines. The second president was Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo who sponsored new laws such as the indigenous people’s
rights law and the anti-sexual harassment law.
 That is why the focus on gender and governance is very important. As noted
by NGO Report, training for women leaders is not wanting; it is the number of
women to be trained entering politics which must be expanded.
 In all, what it boils down to is that, we need not only women in policy-making,
but women and men who are aware of and committed to uplifting the plight of
women.

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MODULE 15

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND EQUALITY: HUMAN RIGHTS AND GENDER

 Of particular importance to this view is the protection and advancement

Amending the Family Code of the Philippines to remove traces of

However, Filipinas should not be complacent because, in reality, there is

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, based on information provided by

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